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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Recording and selling cover songs

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We are about to record an album of approximately 10-11 songs and we want to record one cover...the rest are originals. We do our own arrangement but the song is obviously a cover (Istanbul...the Halibuts did it in the 90's).

Who do we contact? Would someone come after us? Is this a stupid question?

-Steve

When you get your record pressed you will find the necessary information from the people pressing your record.

You can obtain reproduction rights from either the artist or most of the time through the Harry Fox Agency which is a clearing house for this need. Also you can read up on this on cd baby. Our last cd has 6 covers 4 we cleared through Fox and 2 from the artist (Dick Dale)'s represenitive

www.northofmalibu.com

I believe that is an old Jazz song,
you could get lucky and it would be public domain, but doubtful...

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

is this something you have to pay for?

WaimeaBay
is this something you have to pay for?

Yes it is. Normally you have to pay mechanical royalties. This is a fee per song per CD pressed. The writer royalties are taken care of by BMI or ASCAP in the US, I think. The SOCAN organization takes care of this in Canada and doesn't come out of your pocket.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

If you go through the Harry Fox agency, you basically pre-pay the mechanical royalties for however many CDs you're going to produce. I think 250 is the minimum IIRC.

You need to go on to the Harry Fox site and check out the link for "songfile" and educate yourself about what is needed. It's not a lot of money per song but can add up if you are covering many songs. Also digital rights to distribute are not included when you pay for mechanical rights and there is an additional charge if you also want to sell downloads...may have mentioned this but cdbaby also has a lot of good info on this and you should read what they have to say..better than asking us!! hah!

www.northofmalibu.com

That's good advice...I checked the site

http://cdbaby.net/dd-covers

that's all I needed to know!!!!

Thanks guys!

Mechanical royalties aren't that much. If I remember correctly the statutory rate (what you'd pay through a clearing house) is currently just under 10 cents per unit. So if you press 1000 CD's you're only looking at a payout of about $100 per cover tune.

Matt Crunk
Decatur, Alabama

Founder: North Alabama Surf Alliance (NASA)

If you get any radio play, I believe it's the broadcaster's responsibility to pay some royalties when they play it, to both the performer and the composer or copyright holder.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.

planish
If you get any radio play, I believe it's the broadcaster's responsibility to pay some royalties when they play it, to both the performer and the composer or copyright holder.

Yep!

And make sure to join a songwriters organization (SOCAN in Canada, BMI, Ascap, etc), and register your songs. I do enjoy receiving quarterly cheques for airplay/tv broadcasts. It's free to sign up with these organizartions.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

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